Chosen's Burden
by raiaki
Summary: The innocent, cheerful Colette might be a lot more like Zelos than anyone would suspect.


**"What's this, my pretty angel?" Zelos asked, an edge to his tone as he walked up to Colette. She started and pulled her top back up over her shoulder, panic present in her blue eyes for only a split second before it was covered up by seemingly genuine happiness.**

 **"Zelos!" she chirped. "Isn't this - "**

 **"I asked what that was just now," he interrupted, voice still deceptively cheerful, and Colette stopped and looked at him, her expression suddenly unreadable.**

 **Then, softly, her voice no longer cheerful, "What are you talking about, Zelos?"**

 **"You know what I'm talking about," he said evenly, fixing her with a piercing gaze. All pretense of cheeriness had been dropped now on his part, too. "That. On your shoulder just now. That you tried to hide when I walked up."**

 **"Why do you...suddenly want to know that?" she asked, and there was a hint of a dark anger in her voice, something Zelos knew she almost never showed. "You don't like to get involved in other peoples' problems, Zelos. So why don't you pretend you didn't see anything? You're only an observer on this trip, after all. You have no stake in it. Actually, it's better for you if I die, as the Chosen of the other world."**

 **So her true face shows. "Because you're Chosen, just like me," he said bluntly. "It's starting to look like the burden was just as unwanted to you as it was to me. And because your cheerful facade is starting to really fucking piss me off. It's a bit too much like mine, you see."**

 **Colette giggled. It was much colder than her normal one. "You're confusing me, Zelos," she said, lapsing back into her chirpy, innocent tone of voice, and he clenched a fist to stop himself from physically hitting something. Especially her, no matter how infuriating she was. The great Zelos didn't hit women.**

 **"Stop. Just...stop. You talk normally, I'll talk normally. Let's drop the bullshit, just for a second."**

 **She stared at him for a long time, so long that Zelos internally started to feel a little uncomfortable. Finally she said simply, "Okay. If you insist."**

 **Colette didn't say anything else, so after the moment had stretched Zelos took it upon himelf to progress. "What's wrong with your shoulder?"**

 **"I don't want to tell you," she answered immediately. The lack of her usual style was at once refreshing and disturbing, like the normal Colette had been taken away and replaced with a clay doll.**

 **"Does Lloyd know?" he asked, despite already being almost certain of the answer.**

 **"No."**

 **"Why are you hiding it?" His voice came out chilly, at odds with the cool nonchalance he usually tried to project. "What the hell are you expecting to gain from that?"**

 **"I didn't want to worry everyone."**

 **"That's bullshit," he snapped. "I'm sure it'll break Lloyd's heart way worse if you suddenly drop dead with no explanation. Worse when he didn't notice what was going on. He'd beat himself up over it forever. You know that."**

 **She said nothing, staring down at the hem of her dress again. Zelos stared at her. Finally Colette murmured, "My purpose is gone."**

 **"What?"**

 **"I was meant to regenerate the world," she said. "Save everyone. Atone for the countless people who died. But now I can't even do that."**

 **"So - what, you want to punish yourself?" Zelos said incredulously. "You want to die?"**

 **"Not exactly. But how can I disrupt what we're doing just to go off in search of a cure that may not exist, when I already caused so much to go wrong?"**

 **He wanted to shake her. "Colette, in what world did you cause it to go wrong? Did you miss that Mithos was the one who did all this?"**

 **Colette's blue eyes were firm. "No. But not being the root cause of something doesn't absolve you of responsibility. I'm involved, whether I like it or not. You'reinvolved. Because we're Chosen."**

 **Zelos opened his mouth angrily to tell her that was bullshit, but the words died in his throat. Because that, at least, was true.**

 **He could never escape the shadow of the Chosen bearing down on him.**


End file.
